Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
THE African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is working with governments on the continent, including in Zimbabwe, to leverage agricultural export capacity to ensure domestic food security, amid a huge food import bill.
AfCFTA was operationalised in January 2021 to streamline customs procedures, reduce bureaucracy, and harmonise technical standards to ease the movement of goods across the continent's borders.
The AfCFTA agreement, to which Zimbabwe is a signatory, aims to eliminate tariffs on 90 percent of goods traded between member States over a 10-year period.
The objective is to foster regional economic integration and boost intra-African trade by 53 percent by next year with the potential to create up to 30 million jobs and lift 30 million people out of poverty.
Speaking at the SADC Investment Conference in Harare yesterday, AfCFTA secretary-general, Mr Wamkele Mene said despite the continent having the capacity to feed the rest of the world, the region was presently importing nearly US$50 billion worth of basic agricultural products annually.
The conference was held under the auspices of the SADC Industrialisation Week (SIW), which started on Sunday.
"Our continent imports close to US$50 billion worth of basic agricultural products per year including rice, wheat, and other goods. Yet we do know that we have, as Africa, the capacity not only to feed ourselves but to feed the rest of the world.
"That is why we are working with governments across the African continent including here in Zimbabwe to leverage agricultural export capacity to enable countries on the continent and in the sub-region to feed themselves to ensure food security in their countries - to export excess grains and foods to other parts of the continent so that we reduce reliance on others in other parts of the world to feed the African continent," he said.
Mr Mene said African governments were actively seized with the matter, and in due course, they will present to the Heads of State and Government, the trade instruments to unlock and enable the continent to accelerate food security and reduce imports from other parts of the world.
"The recent milestones achieved across the region including here in Zimbabwe, as we have heard, must be supported by trade instruments that are continental in nature. These continental trade instruments include the AfCFTA to grant access of Zimbabwe's agricultural products to other parts of the world at preferential rates to enable competitiveness in respect of other imports from around the world," he said.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
"We must proudly proclaim that we will use the basic instruments of the trade rules of the AfCFTA. By the year 2050, as we proclaim that the youngest working force in the world will be in Africa, we should position young Africans to benefit from this market of 1,4 billion people.
"I hope at this point in 2050, our continent becomes globally competitive, as I believe it should be, and that at that point our continent becomes the 7th or even 5th largest economy in the world in terms of combined Gross Domestic Product."
Africa's GDP presently stands at close to US$16,2 trillion.
"The potential of this market presents opportunities for SADC to expand market access, investment and trade into other regions of the African continent. Through harmonisation of rules such as custom systems, trade facilitation, reducing barriers to trade, the AfCFTA presents an opportunity for Africa to accelerate competitiveness and deepen market integration," said Mr Mene.
